Terminal applicators which are used in conjunction with a press for attaching terminals to the ends of wires usually include a frame; a tooling ram slidingly coupled to the frame, crimping tooling attached to the tooling ram and the frame, a terminal feed mechanism, and a terminal guide track. An example of such a terminal applicator is disclosed in United U.S. Pat. No. 5,481,796 which issued Jan. 9, 1996 to Quinn. The applicator of the '796 patent is held in a press which has a press ram that is coupled to the applicator tooling ram and drives it through its working stroke to attach the terminal to the end of the wire. These applicators are designed, as much as possible, to be universal in that they will accommodate a wide range of terminals. Because there are many different types of terminals and a variety of different sizes, each having its own specific crimp height for a high quality crimped connection, the mechanism for controlling the crimp height must be able to adjust the applicator to a wide variety of shut height spacings. The shut height adjusting mechanism which controls crimp height, as shown in the '796 patent, includes a pair of rotatable discs that are interposed between the tooling ram and the press ram. The upper disc includes four pairs of raised portions that are positionable so that only two at a time are in engagement with the press ram. Each pair of raised portions are of a different height so that by positioning a desired pair in alignment with the press ram, the shut height of the terminal barrel crimping bar can be set to a desired value. Similarly, the lower disc included eight raised portions, any one of which can be positioned in engagement with the top of the insulation tab crimping bar. Each of these raised portions are of a different height so that by positioning a desired one in alignment with the top of the insulation tab crimping bar, the shut height of the crimping bar can be set to a desired value. However, since only four different barrel shut heights and eight different insulation tab shut heights can be accommodated with a particular pair of discs, sets of discs having raised portions of different height must be provided. These disc sets are expensive and require that the applicator be taken out of service while the discs are changed. To increase the adjusting capacity of the upper disc a single disc was developed having removable buttons of selected thicknesses instead of the raised portions. Such a structure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,634 which issued Jun. 28, 1994 to Wolfe, et al By changing only the buttons the shut height of the barrel crimping bar can be changed to any desired value. However, this still required that a large number of different sized buttons be maintained on hand. Further, the insulation tab crimping bar was still limited to the eight different raised portions for its shut height adjustment.
What is needed is an adjusting mechanism that will permit a large number of different shut height spacings for both the barrel crimping bar and the insulation tab crimping bar without the need to change parts or to take the applicator out of service while making the adjustment.